Posts Tagged groupon
Twitter is now into e-commerce
Posted by Paul McSweeney in Facebook, M-Commerce, Social Commerce on July 8th, 2010
On Tuesday Twitter unveiled its first foray into selling products.
The company announced @earlybird Exclusive Offers, which will be time-sensitive deals on products and events that will appear on the @earlybird Twitter account. People can follow that account to get access to the deals.
The idea borrows from private and limited-time sale sites, like Gilt, Groupon and Woot (which was recently acquired by Amazon), a recent trend in online shopping. It also takes advantage of what companies like Dell, which attributes millions of dollars in sales to posting deals on Twitter, are already doing.
The deals could be on products, like iPods or nappies, or on events, like concert tickets or travel. In a post on a company blog, Twitter hinted that it could filter deals by category, like clothing or gadgets, in the future. Twitter stressed that it would be selective about which deals were offered and “try and make these deals interesting and of value to you.”
The retailers will determine the price of the items and how many are available. Twitter will earn money from the sales. It is experimenting with different models, like a cut of each sale or a fixed price per deal, said Sean Garrett, a Twitter spokesman. The retailers will collect shoppers’ credit card numbers and otherwise fulfill the transaction.
This is a different approach to e-commerce than the one Twitter were potentially toying with last year, in which retailers could offer transactions on the site based on what people are writing about. A running shoe retailer, for example, could offer shoes to people who asked about the best shoes for running on trails. This might still be possible with annotations, a new service that Twitter says it is rolling out soon so that people can add so-called metadata, like a way to make a purchase, to Twitter posts.
The first deal will appear soon, Mr. Garrett said. They will initially be nationwide, but Twitter is considering offering deals specific to cities or countries later on. If @earlybird takes off, Twitter could become a competitor to Groupon and the many other local daily deal sites, as well as to Woot, Gilt and others.
Innovation brings a touch of class to online shopping
Posted by Paul McSweeney in World News on June 16th, 2010
E-commerce is not generally seen as the sexiest corner of the internet these days. Amazon has become the world’s general store, eBay the world’s flea market. Wal-Mart and Target offer predictably low prices. Brands sell direct through their websites, but hardly make that their focus.
Many luxury groups have opted out of e-commerce altogether, believing the risks of selling online – such as brand degradation and counterfeiting – outweigh any benefits.
This whole notion of the web being a channel of discounting went against the very aesthetic of these brands. But recent innovation has reshaped e-commerce. Luxury brands are discovering ways to reach customers without sacrificing brand integrity.
Applications on smartphones and the iPad have delivered a powerful interface for users to search, browse and buy goods. Ralph Lauren’s Rugby brand and Gap, among others, have developed their own sophisticated apps.
Indeed shopping is proving one of the most popular activities on touch devices. Sales through eBay’s iPhone app last year topped $500m. Purchases included a Lamborghini, and a Bentley.
All this shows that people are rapidly becoming used to the convenience of getting what they want, when they want it. Buyers are used to finding very expensive goods online. People are also confident enough to make big purchases without having to talk to a sales representative.
Luxury goods are among the most popular things consumers search for online, and a lot of it is their desire to know what’s going on with them, and their desire to own them. Yet meeting the demand and maintaining the luxury brand’s image was a perennial challenge.
Most high-end brands have established online sales through traditional channels, such as resellers and their own sites, and now they are gaining the confidence to venture out.
In addition to new applications, and private sales sites such as Gilt Groupe and Haute Look, one can also point to local deal sites such as Groupon and Living Social, and a new wave of companies that are bringing together location awareness, real-time inventory and deals, and social media.
It’s a huge period of innovation for consumer facing e-commerce. Customers are looking for curation, and social and mobile media are enabling real innovation and entrepreneurship today.
